Ask SAM – SCCM software metering

Dear Sam,During 1E’s Software Asset Management Webinar, Leveraging the Power of SAM – from Tactical to Strategic, a question was raised regarding 1E’s free Software Lifecycle Intelligence Tool: “Do you need metering or usage configured for the 1E Intelligence tool to work correctly?”I remain confused as to how the tool can return results if SCCM is not collecting usage data for the applications being targeted by the tool. If the data is not being returned by SCCM, how can the Intelligence tool determine underused software products?Regards,Confused by Intelligence

Dear Confused by Intelligence,

There is a lot of confusing information regarding SCCM Software Metering on the Internet, so let me clarify a few details. For 1E’s Intelligence and AppClarity products to work, you need to have the Software Metering Client Enabled, but do not have to have any rules defined.

By simply having the Software Metering Client enabled, Configuration Manger will track the date of the last execution of executable files on a client device. This level of information on software usage is often all you need to know in order to identify if an application is used. Enabling the Software Metering Client will have a very minimal impact on the amount of data your SCCM implementation is transferring.

Just enabling the Software Metering Client SCCM will not collect additional information – such as the time the application started, or when the user exits the application. If you decide you need this additional fidelity on application usage, you need to add software metering rules to SCCM. Before you do that, be aware that additional software metering rules will have a much larger impact on the amount of data your SCCM implementation transfers. You will need to ensure your network and data storage are set up to handle the additional load.

One more piece of information you need to know – default configurations changed between SCCM 2007 and SCCM 2012. In SCCM 2007, depending on what options were selected during installation, the Software Metering Client may be disabled by default, so you may need to enable this option to monitor usage from that point on. SCCM 2012 has the Software Metering Client enabled by default. In either case, if you’ve had the Software Metering Client enabled for a reasonable period of time, you’ll be able to report on usage information as soon as you install the free Intelligence tool, or AppClarity products from 1E.